Dark and Darker developer Ironmace says it is spending "thousands of dollars a day" to keep the playtest running, despite no longer being able to make any money from Steam. This also comes after the game's GoFundMe was taken down, raising concerns over how long development can sustain itself.

It also comes as Ironmace finds itself with an even greater need for some revenue, with Nexon suing the studio in the United States. Now, with previously promised playtests and the ensuing hotfixes being sent out via torrents, it's not clear how the developers plan to proceed finacially.

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This comes from a comment from an Ironmace developer, going by the username Graysun. It was spotted by Reddit user Zan-Zuri over on the Dark and Darker subreddit, and worries fans that Ironmace deciding to launch the playtest without access to Steam was a mistake.

The comment came in response to a fan asking how the developers were making money on the game if it wasn't on Steam. Judging by Graysun's reply, it would seem that the studio is simply not making money, or at least not enough to cover the costs of the servers.

As many have highlighted in the subreddit, keeping the servers running would still cost the devs money if the game was on Steam. However, the big difference is that it would be much easier to monetise, particularly through early access and pre-orders. Right now, there's no way to pre-order the game, and it's not clear how Ironmace plans to distribute it at the end of the year, which is when it's planning the full launch.

Of course, the devs are likely hoping to have cleared its legal woes by then. As we covered earlier today, Ironmace now has legal representation, and has issued a statement that calls on Valve to put Dark and Darker back on Steam. It calls Nexon's claim that Dark and Darker was made with stolen ideas and assets "entirely without merit", and counterclaims that Nexon had no intention of releasing the game it had allegedly stolen from, codenamed P3.

However, with Nexon now extending its legal efforts into the United States, it seems that the spat is far from over. So far, Valve has shown no signs of budging from its decision either, so the future of Dark and Darker remains uncertain.

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